Return to home254 May 12,
St. Stephen I began his reign as the 23rd Catholic Pope. According
to the “Liber Pontificalis" he instituted the rule that clerics
should wear special clothes at their ministrations.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)

919 May 12, Duke Henry of Saxon
became King Henry I of Eastern Europe.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1215 May 12, English barons
served an ultimatum on King John (known as "Lack land").
(MC, 5/12/02)

1459 May 12, Sun City, India,
was founded by Rao Jodhpur.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1534 May 12, Wurttenburg became
Lutheran.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1551 May 12, San Marcos
University opened in Lima, Peru. The Universidad Nacional Mayor de
San Marcos was founded under Spanish royal charter.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.18)(AM, 7/01, p.18)(Econ,
10/8/11, p.47)

1588 May 12, King Henry II fled
Paris after Catholic League under duke Henry of Guise entered the
city. The people of Paris rose against Henry III, who fled to
Chartres. Seven months later he had Henry of Guise and his brother,
Cardinal de Guise, assassinated.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.24)(HN, 5/12/98)(MC, 5/12/02)

1641 May 12, Thomas Wentworth
(48), chief advisor to Charles I and English viceroy of Ireland, was
beheaded in the Tower of London.
(HN, 5/12/01)(MC, 5/12/02)

1689 May 12, England’s King
William III joined the League of Augsburg and the Netherlands. The
"Grand Alliance" was formed to counter the war of aggression
launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate states in Germany. This
is known as The War of the League of Augsburg (1689-97) also The
Nine Years' War, and the War of the Grand Alliance.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/king_william.htm)

1780 May 12, Charleston, SC,
fell to the British in the US Revolutionary War.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97) (HN, 5/12/98)

1789 May 12, The Society of St.
Tammany was formed by Revolutionary War soldiers. It later became an
infamous group of NYC political bosses.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1789 May 12, In England William
Wilberforce laid out his case for the abolition of slavery to the
House of Commons. This speech directly led to Britain’s abolition of
slavery in 1807.
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.P14)

1792 May 12, A toilet that
flushed itself at regular intervals was patented.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1797 May 12, Johann Hermann
Kufferath, composer, was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1797 May 12, George Washington
addressed the Delaware chiefs and stated: “It is the duty of all
nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his
will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his
protection and favor."
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)

1816 May 12, Lord Grimthorpe
was born. He was the designer of “Big Ben," the most recognized
structure in London.
(HN, 5/12/99)

1820 May 12, Florence
Nightingale (d.1910), Crimean War British nurse known as “Lady with
the Lamp," was born in Florence, Italy. She is also known as the
founder of modern nursing.
(AP,
5/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale)

1828 May 12, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti (d.1882), English poet and painter, was born. He helped
found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Gabriel_Rossetti)(WSJ, 7/25/95,
p.A-10)

1842 May 12, Jules Massenet
Montaud, French composer, was born. His work included “Manon" and
“Le Cid."
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)

1845 May 12, Gabriel Urbain
Faure, French composer, was born in Pamiers. His work included
“Requiem" and “Ballade."
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(MC, 5/12/02)
1845 May 12, August Wilhelm
Schlegel (77), German poet, interpreter, critic, died.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1851 May 12, A treaty was
signed on the south bank of the Kaweah River, the site of John
Wood's grave. Woods was killed by Yokut Indians. The California Tule
River War ended.
(HN, 4/28/00)(WW, 6/99)(HN, 5/12/01)

1873 May 12, The penny postal
card, issued by the Post Office Department, was first put on sale in
Springfield, Mass., and in other cities a day later.
(www.dailymail.com/static/specialsections/lookingback/lb0201.htm)

1874 May 12, The US Assay
office in Helena, Montana, was authorized.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)

1881 May 12, The Treaty of
Bardo established Tunis [Tunisia] as a French protectorate. The
French withdrew their forces after signing the treaty. The terms of
the agreement gave France responsibility for the defense and foreign
policy decisions of Tunisia. Henceforth, Tunis became a French
protectorate
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Bardo)

1898 May 12, Louisiana adopted
a new constitution with a “grandfather clause" designed to eliminate
black voters.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)

1900 May 12, Mostly Black
fighters in Mafikeng repelled a Boer assault. Col. Robert
Baden-Powell, commander of the British troops in Mafikeng, armed
black fighters and many died during the 7-month siege.
(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)

1915 May 12, Mary Kay Ash,
chairman of Mary Kay Cosmetics, was born.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1915 May 12, Croatians
plundered Armenia and killed 250.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1915 May 12, In South Africa
Naspers was founded as Die Nasionale Pers (The National Press) with
the aim of furthering the cause of the Afrikaner people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naspers)(Econ,
7/10/10, p.61)

1924 May 12, Russian-American
poet Alexander Esenin-Volpin was born in Leningrad. A notable
dissident, political prisoner and a leader of the Soviet human
rights movement, he spent total of fourteen years incarcerated and
repressed by the Soviet authorities in prisons, psikhushkas and
exile.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Esenin-Volpin)

1925 May 12, Lawrence “Yogi"
Berra, baseball star, was born. He played as a catcher for the New
York Yankees and worked as a coach and manager for the Mets and
Astros.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)
1925 May 12, John Simon,
theater critic, was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1928 May 12, Brothers Joe and
Tom Longs opened their first store on Oakland’s Piedmont Ave. In
1993 Longs acquired Bill’s Drugs, a 20 store chain in northern
California. In 2008 Longs Drugs was acquired by CVS Caremark for
$2.9 billion.
(SFC, 8/14/08, p.C3)
1928 May 12, In Italy Mussolini
abolished women suffrage under a new law that restricted the
franchise to men 21 and over who pay syndicate rates or taxes or 100
lire.
(PCh, 1992, p.787)

1929 May 12, Burt Bacharach,
composer, was born in KC, Mo. His songs included “I’ll Never Fall in
Love Again."
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)(MC, 5/12/02)

1932 May 12, Goofy, aka Dippy
Dawg, 1st appeared in 'Mickey's Revue' by Walt Disney.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1932 May 12, The body of the
kidnapped son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was found in a wooded
area of Hopewell, N.J.
(AP, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)

1933 May 12, The Federal
Emergency Relief Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration were established to provide help for the needy and
farmers.
(AP, 5/12/03)
1933 May 12, In San Francisco a
drawbridge, designed by Joseph B. Strauss, opened on Third St.
across Mission Creek Channel. In 1969 it was renamed in honor of the
famous baseball player Lefty O'Doul.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_O%27Doul_Bridge)(SFC, 3/14/00,
p.A15)
1933 May 12, Andrey Andreyevich
Voznesensky, Russian poet, was born.
(HN, 5/12/01)

1937 May 12, George Carlin
(d.2002), comedian, was born in the Bronx.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin)
1937 May 12, In San Francisco
over 1,000 tons of gold were moved from the old to the new US Mint.
The Old Mint stopped being an actual mint and was just used for
federal offices. It had once stored a third of the nation’s gold
supply. The new mint opened on upper Market near the Castro
District.
(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A14)(SSFC, 1/28/03, p.E6)(SSFC,
5/13/12, p.42)
1937 May 12, The Duke of York
was crowned Britain's King George VI at Westminster Abbey.
(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.40)(AP, 5/12/97)

1942 May 12, A Nazi U-boat sank
an American cargo ship at mouth of Mississippi River.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 May 12, David Ben-Gurion
left the Jewish state in Palestine.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1942 May 12, The Soviet Army
launched its first major offensive of the war and took Kharkov in
the eastern Ukraine from the German army.
(HN, 5/12/99)
1942 May 12, 1,500 Jews were
gassed in Auschwitz.
(MC, 5/12/02)

1943 May 12, Axis forces in
Tunisia and all of North Africa surrendered.
(AP, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)

1948 May 12, Queen Wilhelmina
resigned. [see Sep 4]
(MC, 5/12/02)

1949 May 12, S.V.L. Pandit of
India was received as the first foreign woman ambassador to the US.
(SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1949 May 12, The Soviet Union
announced an end to the Berlin blockade. [see Sep 30, 1949]
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)(HN,
5/12/98)

1957 May 12, Erich von Stroheim
(b.1885), Austrian-US actor and director, died of cancer in Paris.
His films included "Grand Illusion," "The Merry Widow," and "Greed."
In 2000 Arthur Lennig published the biography "Stroheim."
(WSJ, 2/23/00,
p.A20)(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002233/)

1958 May 12, The United States
and Canada signed an agreement to create the North American Air
Defense Command (later the North American Aerospace Defense Command,
or NORAD for short).
(AP, 5/12/08)

1967 May 12, H. Rap Brown
(b.1943) replaced Stokely Carmichael (1941-1968) as chairman of
Student Nonviolating Coordinating Committee and announced that the
organization will continue its commitment to black power.
(www.shmoop.com/civil-rights-black-power/timeline.html)
1967 May 12, English poet
laureate John Masefield died.
(AP, 5/12/07)

1968 May 12, In Israel the
Knesset passed the Jerusalem Day Law, making the day a national
holiday. Israel’s government proclaimed Jerusalem Day, to be
celebrated on the 28th of Iyar, the Hebrew date on which the divided
city of Jerusalem became one.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Day)

1969 May 12, Winnie Mandela was
detained under South Africa’s Terrorism Act and was placed in
solitary confinement for seventeen months. In 1970 she was placed
under house arrest.
(www.answers.com/topic/winnie-madikizela-mandela)(http://tinyurl.com/cynuvn)
1969 May 12, Viet Cong sappers
tried unsuccessfully to overrun Landing Zone Snoopy in Vietnam.
(HN, 5/12/99)

1970 May 12, The US Senate
voted unanimously to confirm Harry A. Blackmun as a Supreme Court
justice. Blackmun (1908-1999) was nominated to the US Supreme Court
by Richard Nixon on April 14, 1970.
(AP,
5/12/97)(www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/blackmun.bio.html)
1970 May 12, In Augusta,
Georgia, an overnight riot left 6 black men dead. Autopsies
confirmed that the six men killed were all shot in the back with
police-issued shotguns.
(www.socyberty.com/History/Augusta-Georgia-Riot-of-1970.237549)
1970 May 12, Premier Robert
Bourassa (1933-1996) began serving his first term as the Liberal
Premier of the province of Quebec. This term ended in 1976. He then
served a 2nd term from 1985-1994.
(SFC, 10/3/96,
p.C6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bourassa)

1971 May 12, A 6.3 earthquakes
in western Turkey killed about 100 people.
(http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/events/1971_05_turkey.php)

1973 May 12, In Australia the
northeast town of Nimbin was on the verge of closing when a group of
university students held the Aquarius hippy festival in a nearby
paddock. Many hippies put down roots and build an alternate culture.
By 2007 Nimbin's marijuana smoking reputation had become global with
busloads of young foreign tourists.
(Reuters,
4/19/07)(www.milesago.com/Festivals/aquarius73.htm)

1975 May 12, The White House
announced the new Cambodian government had seized an American
merchant ship, the Mayaguez, with 39 crew members in international
waters. Pres. Gerald Ford sent a company of Marines to rescue the
ship. The ship was freed but there were 41 Americans killed or
missing and more than 50 wounded.
(SFEC, 5/11/97, p.T10)(AP, 5/12/97)

1978 May 12, The US Commerce
Department said hurricanes would no longer be named exclusively
after women.
(AP,
10/12/97)(www.answers.com/topic/united-states-department-of-commerce?cat=biz-fin)

1980 May 12, Maxie Anderson
(45) and his son Kris (23) completed the 1st balloon crossing of the
American continent as they landed their helium-filled balloon on
Canada’s Gaspe Peninsula. Their journey began May 8 in Marin Ct.,
Ca.
(SFC, 5/6/05, p.F2)

1982 May 12, Braniff Airlines,
based in Dallas, ceased operations. N601BN "747 Braniff Place" made
the very last Braniff flight from Hawaii to Dallas/Fort Worth on May
13. Harding Lawrence (d.2002 at 81) led the company from 1965-1980.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braniff_Airways)(SFC, 1/21/02, p.B5)
1982 May 12, In Fatima,
Portugal, security guards overpowered a Spanish ex-priest armed with
a bayonet who was trying to reach Pope John Paul II. John Paul was
visiting to give thanks for surviving an assassination attempt on
May 13, 1981. Ultra-conservative Spanish priest, Juan Fernandez
Krohn, lunged at the pope with a dagger and was knocked to the
ground by police and arrested. The pope was wounded, but this was
not disclosed until 2008.
(AP,
10/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II)(Reuters,
10/15/08)

1985 May 12, Illinois Gov.
James Thompson commuted the sentence of Gary Dotson, who'd served
six years in prison for a rape that the alleged victim later said
never happened.
(AP, 5/12/05)
1985 May 12, Amy Eilberg was
ordained in New York as the first female rabbi in the Conservative
Jewish movement.
(AP, 5/12/05)

1990 May 12, The tune "Sending
All My Love" by Linear reached #8 on the pop singles chart.
(www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1990/05-12.htm)
1990 May 12, The presidents of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania forged a united front by reviving a
1934 political alliance in hopes of enhancing their drive for
independence from the Soviet Union.
(AP, 5/12/00)

1991 May 12, Syrian President
Hafez Assad, meeting with US Secretary of State James A. Baker the
Third, refused to yield on key demands for joining a Middle East
peace conference.
(AP, 5/12/01)

1992 May 12, Four suspects were
arrested in the beating of trucker Reginald Denny at the start of
the Los Angeles riots.
1992 May 12, President Bush
announced he would travel to the Earth Summit in Brazil.
(AP, 5/12/97)
1992 May 12, Actor Robert Reed
(59) of TV's "The Brady Bunch" died in Pasadena, Calif.
(AP, 5/12/97)

1993 May 12, President Clinton
proposed putting all money raised from new taxes and spending cuts
into a trust fund dedicated solely to reducing the nation's huge
budget deficit.
(AP, 5/12/98)

1994 May 12, The US Senate
joined the House in passing a bill banning blockades, violence and
threats against clinics where abortions were being performed.
(AP, 5/12/99)
1994 May 12, British Labor
Party leader John Smith died unexpectedly at age 55.
(AP, 5/12/99)

1995 May 12, President Clinton,
during a stopover in Ukraine, visited Babi Yar, where the Nazis
massacred more than 30,000 Kiev Jews in 1941.
(AP, 5/12/00)

1996 May 12, Authorities in
Florida called off the search for possible survivors from the crash
of ValuJet Flight 592, a day after the jetliner nose-dived into the
Everglades with 110 people on board.
(AP, 5/12/97)
1996 May 12, Brewster Kahle
founded the non-profit Internet Archive. With a former colleague he
also co-founded a firm called Alexa, to track and analyze the paths
people follow as they move around the Web. In 1999 Amazon bought
Alexa for an estimated $250 million.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive)(Econ, 3/7/09, p.34)
1996 May 12, The house in which
Margaret Mitchell wrote “Gone With the Wind" in Atlanta, Georgia,
and purchased by Daimler-Benz for $4.5 mil, burned down while under
re-construction for the summer Olympics.
(SFC, 7/10/96, p.A4)
1996 May 12, The Canadian
province of Ontario announced a 15% tax cut last week under Premier
Mike Harris, who was selected last June on promises to cut the
budget deficit and taxes. His cuts have led to tuition increases,
expected hospital closures or consolidations, and the marked
elimination of 10,000 government jobs.
(SFC, 5/12/96, p.A-10)

1997 May 12, At the Oklahoma
City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh, star prosecution witness
Michael Fortier testified that McVeigh had been bent on triggering a
"general uprising in America."
(AP, 5/12/98)
1997 May 12, Susie Maroney,
Australian swimmer, became the first woman to swim the 105 mile swim
from Cuba to Key West, Fla., in 24 hours and 31 min. AP says
118-mile distance in 24 1/2 hours
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A3)(AP, 5/12/98)
1997 May 12, Russia and
Chechnya signed a peace treaty. The treaty refers to Chechnya as the
“Chechen Republic of Ichkeria," and says that it is subject to
international law.
(SFC, 5/13/97, p.A12)

1998 May 12, Singer Ray Charles
and sitar master Ravi Shankar received the Polar Music Prize,
$133,000, from King Carl Gustav XVI in Sweden. The award was
established by Stig Anderson, manager of the Abba pop group.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.C5)
1998 May 12, Britain offered
Northern Ireland a $500 million package of financing and tax breaks
for roads, railways and the reduction of unemployment.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A11)
1998 May 12, In Columbia
retired Gen’l. Fernando Landazabal Reyes, a former defense minister,
was shot and killed in Bogota.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)
1998 May 12, Eritrea accused
Ethiopian militiamen of invading its territory in a border skirmish.
Ethiopia later said 20 people were killed and 20 wounded by Eritrean
forces.
(WSJ, 5/15/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A12)
1998 May 12, A day after
India's first atomic test blasts in 24 years, neighboring Pakistan
said it was ready to test a nuclear device itself.
(AP, 5/12/99)
1998 May 12-1998 May 15, In
Indonesia President Suharto's security forces opened fire on student
protesters at Trisakti Univ. and 6 were killed with another 20
injured. It was later reported that 1,188 people died in Jakarta in
the riots over this period. The nationwide toll was believed to be
much higher. A later government report indicated that the military
contributed to Suharto’s downfall. The report also concluded that 66
women, many of them ethnic Chinese, were raped during the riots.
Human rights groups estimated that 160 women were raped.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/14/98, p.A14)(SFC,
6/4/98, p.C2)(SFC, 11/4/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A1)
1998 May 12, In Kosovo Serbian
police clashed with ethnic Albanians and 2 ethnic Albanians were
reported killed in Pristina. The police had found the site of the
attack to be loaded with weapons.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)
1998 May 12, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels killed 17 people, 14 in the town of Taba and 3 others in
Kayenzi. Another 10 were wounded in the attacks.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D3)
1998 May 12, In Turkey Akin
Birdal, head of the independent Human Rights Association, was shot
and injured in an attack by the Turkish Revenge Brigade, an
ultranationalist group. Five ultranationalists were arrested May 22.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A14)
1998 May 12, The UAR announced
that it would buy 80 F-16s from the US for about $7 billion.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)

1999 May 12, Robert Rubin, US
Treasury Secretary, announced his resignation. Pres. Clinton chose
Lawrence Summers, the deputy secretary to succeed Rubin. In 2001
Summers left to become the 27th president of Harvard.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A1,19)(WSJ, 6/8/04, p.A1)
1999 May 12, The US Senate
rejected 51 to 47 a Democratic proposal that would have required
background checks for firearms sales at gun-shows. A GOP proposal
for voluntary checks passed 53 to 45.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A3)
1999 May 12, Saul Steinberg
(b.1914), Romania-born cartoon artist, died in NYC. In 2002 a series
of tape-recorded conversations with Aldo Buzzi, translated by John
Shepley, was published. In 2012 Deirdre Bair authored “Saul
Steinberg: A Biography."
(SSFC, 7/14/02,
p.M6)(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9069548/Saul-Steinberg)(SSFC,
12/16/12, p.E3)
1999 May 12, NATO continued
airstrikes for the 50th day of its campaign against Yugoslavia. 327
strike missions were flown. Pres. Milosevic acknowledged that his
military had suffered casualties.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A1,9)
1999 May 12, Iraqi armed forces
said that US and British warplanes had killed 12 civilians in the
Nineveh province.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.C4)
1999 May 12, It was reported
that a drought in northern Mexico was entering its 5th year and the
governor of Sonora said that his state had only a 25 day supply of
water.
(SFC, 5/15/99, p.A11)
1999 May 12, In Russia Pres.
Yeltsin fired Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and named Sergei
Stepashin, a top police official, to head a new government.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A1)
1999 May 12, A new Scottish
parliament sat for the first time in 292 years after elections.
"This was the parliament adjourned on the 25th of March in 1707 and
is hereby reconvened," says the oldest member of the house, the
SNP's Winnie Ewing.
(Reuters, 2/16/12)
1999 May 12, In South Korea
thousands of metal and hospital workers went on strike to protest
planned layoffs and wage cuts.
(SFC, 5/13/99, p.A19)

2000 May 12, During visits to
Ohio and Minnesota, President Clinton called for open trade with
China, saying it would help the communist nation move closer to
democracy.
(AP, 5/12/01)
2000 May 12, The Los Alamos
fire toll covered 30,000 acres with 191 housing structures burned.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A1)
2000 May 12, Adam Petty, 19,
the fourth-generation driver of NASCAR's most famous family, died in
a crash during practice for the Busch 200 at New Hampshire
International Speedway.
(AP, 5/12/01)
2000 May 12, In Argentina at
least 23 police and 22 protestors were injured in the province of
Salta where thousands of jobless workers had blocked a federal
highway for 10 days to protest welfare cuts.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May 12, In Chechnya
Russian forces staged two ambush attacks on rebels and claimed 41
killed.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)
2000 May 12, War erupted
between Eritrea and Ethiopia after Ethiopian troops left their
trenches and attacked Eritrean defenses. 600,000 troops were dug in
along the 600-mile border.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A8)
2000 May 12, The Indonesian
government and separatist rebels negotiated a cease-fire in
Switzerland, the 1st in 25 years of fighting. The 3 month cease-fire
was set to begin Jun 2.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A8)
2000 May 12, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court ruled that the military takeover in October 1999 was justified
under the "doctrine of necessity." Pres. Musharraf had dismissed 13
senior judges and got the remaining judges to decree that his coup
was legal and necessary.
(www.ciaonet.org/olj/sa/sa_jan01kus01.html)(Econ,
7/8/06, Survey p.6)
2000 May 12, Igor Domnikov
(42), a reporter for Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, was found in a pool of
blood at his Moscow apartment building. Domnikov died July 16. In
2007 a court in the city of Kazan sentenced four men to life in
prison, and three others to prison terms ranging from 18 to 25 years
after finding them guilty of killing 23 men, including Domnikov, and
of eight kidnappings. The convicted gang's leader Eduard Tagiryanov,
who was sentenced to life, told the court that Domnikov's killing
had been ordered by former deputy governor of western Lipetsk region
Sergei Dorovsky for a series of critical articles on his policies.
(www.cpj.org/protests/01ltrs/Russia08jan01pl.html)(WSJ, 12/8/06,
p.A12)(AP, 8/31/07)
2000 May 12, In Sri Lanka some
Tamil Tiger rebels rolled into Jaffna and forced government troops
to retreat.
(SFC, 5/13/00, p.A9)

2001 May 12, Perry Como
(b.1913), singer, died at age 88 in Jupiter, Fla. His Perry Como
Show ran on TV for 15 years (1948-1963).
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A27)(NW, 12/31/01, p.110)
2001 May 12, In the West Bank
Moutasem Sabaa (26), a Palestinian militant, and Ala’a Jaloudi, a
Palestinian policeman, were killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.
3 members of the Tanzim militia escaped.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A13)
2001 May 12, In Somalia Aidid
forces gained control of the seaport at Mogadishu in fighting with
the Suleiman clan militia. 40 people were left dead including 21
civilians.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A13)

2002 May 12, Former US Pres.
Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba and Castro offered him unfettered
access. He was the 1st US president, in or out of office, to visit
since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.
(WSJ, 5/13/02, p.A1)(AP, 5/12/03)
2002 May 12, US forces in
Afghanistan killed 5 enemy fighters and captured 32 during a raid at
Deh Rawod, north of Kandahar. US air strikes at Char Chine, killed 5
civilians.
(SFC, 5/14/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 7/21/02, p.A14)
2002 May 12, In India an
express train derailed near Lucknow and 12 people were killed.
Sabotage was suspected.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A6)
2002 May 12, In Israel PM Ariel
Sharon's Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, voted to never
allow the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority
told 26 men transferred from the Church of the Nativity that they
could have jobs in any government bureaucracy including positions in
Gaza's Tanzim militia.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A1,12)(AP, 5/12/03)
2002 May 12, In Kazakhstan a
roof collapsed at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia's main space
launch site. 8 workers were feared killed.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A6)
2002 May 12, In Mali runoff
elections were held. Retired Gen. Amadou Toure won 68% of the vote.
The coalition candidate Siumaila Cisse, a wealthy former finance
minister, conceded with 32%.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A8)

2003 May 12, Fifty-nine Texas
Democrats fled to a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma to thwart a Republican
drive to redraw the state's congressional districts.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 12, Chicago and
Seattle launched 5-day homeland security drills costing an estimated
$16 million.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.3A)(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 12, L. Paul Bremer,
the new American civilian administrator, took over the task of
piecing Iraq together. He replaced retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner.
In 2006 Bremmer with Malcolm McConnell authored “My Year in Iraq."
(AP, 5/12/03)(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.P10)
2003 May 12, US officials said
Rihab Rashid Taha, called "Dr. Germ" for her work with germ warfare
agents, was reported to be in coalition custody. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd
al Sattar Muhammad, No. 11 on the most-wanted list, was also
reported in custody.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 May 12, Prince Sadruddin
Aga Khan (70), a wealthy philanthropist who held a string of top UN
humanitarian posts and was the uncle of the spiritual leader of the
Ismaili sect of Shiite Islam, died in Boston. Khan served as the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (1965-1977).
(AP, 5/13/03)(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A21)
2003 May 12, In Brazil some
1,000 other landless farmers knocked down the barbed-wire fences
surrounding the Tres Marias ranch in southern Brazil, evicted its
owner and claimed the land for themselves. 90 percent of the
Brazil's land was owned by just 20 percent of the people, while the
poorest 40 percent of the population held just 1 percent.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 May 12, A British
government doctor reported that the brains of at least 20,000
people, many of them depressed or mentally ill when they died, were
removed without their families' consent from 1970-1999.
(AP, 5/12/03)(USAT, 5/13/03, p.10A)
2003 May 12, In Toronto,
Canada, Holly Jones (10) disappeared after she walked a friend home
in broad daylight. Less than 24 hours later, a man found some
of the girl's remains in a gym bag off Ward's Island in Lake
Ontario. More body parts were found some distance away on the
mainland. Michael Briere (35) was arrested for the murder on Jun 20.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 May 12, In northern
Chechnya a truck bomb ripped through a government compound, killing
60 people and wounding some 300 others.
(AP, 5/13/03)(WSJ, 5/19/03, p.A1)
2003 May 12, Haiti agreed to
cut spending and stabilize its currency in a deal with the
International Monetary Fund.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 12, Israel sealed the
Gaza Strip, imposing the most sweeping restrictions in years, and
its troops killed three Palestinians in clashes there.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, The UN Security
Council tentatively agreed to send peacekeepers to the Ivory Coast
to help enforce an agreement aimed at ending nine months of civil
war.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, The Kurdish
regional parliament in Erbil declared Apr 9, the date of the fall of
Baghdad to US forces, as a national holiday.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 May 12, North Korea
declared that the 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean
Peninsula free of nuclear weapons was nullified, citing a "sinister"
U.S. agenda.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, In Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, multiple, simultaneous suicide car bombings at 3 foreign
compounds killed 26 people, including 9 US citizens. The next day
Saudi authorities linked Khaled Jehani (29) head of a 19-member
al-Qaida team to the carnage. Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi,
a senior al Qaeda figure, surrendered Jun 26. On Jan 8, 2004, 8
accomplices were arrested in Switzerland.
(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/14/03, p.A1)(SFC,
6/27/03, p.A16)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.A3)(AP, 5/12/08)

2004 May 12, Members of US
Congress expressed outrage after they were privately shown fresh
pictures and videos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by US troops.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2004 May 12, NBC completed a
merger with the Universal television and entertainment businesses to
create a major media conglomerate.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2004 May 12, A wildlife group
warned that world cod stocks were falling and could be wiped out in
15 years if the current rate of over fishing continues.
(WSJ, 5/13/04, p.A1)
2004 May 12, In Iraq US
soldiers backed by tanks and helicopters battled fighters loyal to a
radical cleric near a mosque in Karbala, hours after Iraqi leaders
agreed on a proposal that would end his standoff. As many as 25
insurgents were killed.
(AP, 5/12/04)
2004 May 12, Israeli troops
launched a massive incursion into a Gaza neighborhood, firing
missiles, demolishing buildings and scouring rooftops, in a bid to
recover the body parts of six soldiers killed the day before by
Palestinian militants. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile in
Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood, killing at least three Palestinians.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed when Palestinians blew up an
Israeli armored vehicle.
(AP, 5/12/04)(AP, 5/13/04)
2004 May 12, The Paris Club of
creditor nations agreed to cancel all $152 million owed by Niger to
the club's 19 member countries.
(AP, 5/12/04)
2004 May 12, In Nigeria Muslim
mobs in Kano attacked Christians and as many as 30 people were
killed.
(SFC, 5/13/04, p.A10)

2005 May 12, The US Foreign
Relations Committee voted 10-8 along party lines to advance John
Bolton's nomination to be UN ambassador without the customary
recommendation that the Senate approve it.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 12, Microsoft
officially unveiled its Xbox 360, a video game console boasting
improved graphics over its predecessor.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2005 May 12, The Islamic Center
of America, a $12 million mosque, opened in Dearborn, Mich., down
the road near the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Co.
(SSFC, 10/9/05, p.E6)(www.icofa.com/)
2005 May 12, Police clashed
with anti-U.S. demonstrators in two Afghan towns, killing at least
three people, and Afghan students burned an American flag in Kabul
as protests spread over reported abuse of Islam's holy book at the
U.S. jail in Guantanamo Bay.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Australian police
arrested five men after seizing more than 115 kgs (253 pounds) of
heroin, with a street value of more than A$60 million (US$46
million), hidden in containers of plastic chairs from China.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 12, Austrian
authorities reported the break up a major human trafficking ring led
by Romanian, Moldovan and Ukrainian criminals who smuggled more than
5,000 East Europeans to the West, many enduring horrific conditions
in tiny hiding spaces in cars, trucks and trailers.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Leaders from 12
South American and 22 Arab nations ended their first summit by
endorsing a "Declaration of Brasilia," urging Israel to abandon
Palestinian territory and insisting free trade must be harnessed to
benefit the world's poor.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, It was reported
that Colombia’s Pres. Alvaro Uribe is creating a political party to
formally unite his followers, who until now have been known simply
as "Uribistas." The plan is being resisted by the opposition and
even some of his supporters, who worry about a political party based
on one man's hardline ideals.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Alberto
Santofimio, Colombia's former justice minister, was arrested in
connection with the 1989 assassination of Luis Carlos Galan, leading
presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader killed at a
campaign rally.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, More than 13.5
tons of cocaine stored in underground chambers was seized near
Colombia's southwest coast.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 12, Gunmen ambushed a
UN peacekeeping patrol in Congo's restless eastern Ituri region,
killing one soldier and injuring five.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Militants
assassinated a general and a colonel who were en route to work, and
a car bomb exploded near a busy market and movie theater in eastern
Baghdad, part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 21 Iraqis
and wounded more than 70.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, In Srinagar,
Kashmir, a grenade thrown by suspected Islamic rebels exploded
outside a school, killing two women and wounding at least 57 people,
many of them schoolchildren and their parents.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Latvia’s
parliament issued a declaration that said: "The Soviet Union
occupied and annexed the Republic of Latvia, destroyed its state
system, killed, tortured and deported hundreds of thousands of
people, robbed them of their property without any legal reason."
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 12, Roads in Peru's
Colca Canyon were blocked by townspeople demanding a larger share of
revenue from tourists who come to see condors soar over the
desert-dry moonscape and white-water raft in one of the world's
deepest valleys.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, Nikolai Patrushev,
Russia's security chief. said that his agency has uncovered US,
British, Kuwaiti and Saudi spy activity that was being conducted
under the cover of non-governmental organizations. He also suggested
that foreign governments are using NGOs to fund and support changes
of power in former Soviet republics.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 12, In Andijan,
Uzbekistan, supporters of 23 jailed local businessmen stormed the
jail where they were held freeing them and other prisoners. The
businessmen had been jailed as alleged Islamic extremists.
(Econ, 10/1/05, p.39)

2006 May 12, Tony Snow made his
debut as White House press secretary.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2006 May 12, US Federal
authorities said the number of confirmed cases of a rare fungal eye
infection that can cause blindness has climbed to 122, most of them
contact-lens wearers who reported using Bausch & Lomb Inc.'s
newest lens cleaner. In Oct, 2007, Bausch & Lomb was acquired by
private equity firm Warburg Pincus for $3.67 billion. Chief
Executive Ronald Zarrella said the deal would allow the company "to
pursue the growth path we were on ... without a lot of outside
distraction." Zarrella retired in 2008. As of 2009 away from the
glare of public scrutiny, the optical products company quietly
settled nearly 600 fungal-infection lawsuits with dozens more
individual claims yet to be resolved. The cost so far: Upward of
$250 million.
(AP, 5/12/06)(AP, 6/1/09)
2006 May 12, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger proposed a $131 billion budget.
(SFC, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Kentucky Gov.
Ernie Fletcher said he will complete his first term and seek a
second one despite an indictment on misdemeanor charges that accuse
him of illegally rewarding political supporters with state jobs.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Jonathan Tisch
(52), co-chairman of Loews Corp., announced a donation of $40
million to Tufts Univ., his alma mater.
(WSJ, 5/12/06,
p.W2)(www.tufts.edu/main.php?p=flash)
2006 May 12, Gold surged to
730.65 a troy ounce.
(WSJ, 6/20/06, p.C12)
2006 May 12, Best Buy said it
will pay $180 million for a majority stake in China’s Jiangsu Five
Star Appliance. Co.
(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A6)
2006 May 12, It was announced
that "King Kong" star and Oscar nominee Naomi Watts of Australia has
agreed to serve as special representative for the Joint United
Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS).
(AFP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, In western
Afghanistan militants fired a rocket at a car carrying Unicef
workers killing 2 Afghans and wounding a third.
(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Relations between
Brazil and Bolivia sank to their lowest point in a century, as the
two sparred over Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector and
threats to seize Bolivian land held by Brazilian farmers.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Gen. Oscar
Naranjo, the head of Colombia's judicial police, said he was shocked
to learn his brother, Juan David Naranjo (29), is suspected of
involvement in a major European drug trafficking ring.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Gamal Mubarak, the
son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, met secretly with top White
House officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney. Gamal is
widely seen as his father's heir-apparent.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 12, In Ethiopia 9
bombs exploded in Addis Ababa, killing 4 people and wounding at
least 26.
(AP, 5/12/06)(WSJ, 5/13/06, p.A1)
2006 May 12, Indonesia dropped
corruption charges against former strongman Suharto, disappointing
those who struggled against his repressive rule and had long hoped
to see him brought to justice.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Eight Iraqis died
in violence, including a soldier and a civilian killed in an armed
confrontation between two Iraqi army units.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Gunmen attacked
border posts on both sides of the frontier between Kyrgyzstan and
Tajikistan, killing five people and injuring two.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, In southwestern
Nigeria a ruptured pipeline exploded as villagers rushed to collect
oil gushing from it and a local TV station said up to 200 people
were feared dead. Militants threatened to destroy NLNG, a $13
billion natural gas export plant.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, A Palestinian was
killed in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Vladimiro
Montesinos, Peru's jailed ex-intelligence chief, was sentenced to 10
more years in prison and fined $15.2 million after pleading guilty
to charges of illicit enrichment.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, A small boat sank
during a tropical storm in the central Philippines, killing at least
21 people. Two other people were electrocuted in the storm, while
floods submerged 16 villages.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, Russia's finance
minister said that remaining restrictions on currency movement would
be removed as of July 1, as Russia seeks to make the ruble fully
convertible against a backdrop of oil-driven economic stability.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Local media said
Russian authorities had fired a string of high-ranking security and
law enforcement officials in a shake up described as part of a
Kremlin push to fight graft and cement control of key government
agencies.
(AP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 12, South Korean
prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk on
charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal
over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 12, Spain's Banco
Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) agreed to the French bank BNP
Paribas' purchase of its 14.75-percent stake in Italy's Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), saying it will reap 567 million euros
(731 million dollars) in capital gains from the sale.
(AP, 5/13/06)

2007 May 12, Voters in Farmers
Branch, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, became the first in the nation to
prohibit landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. Texas
courts quickly issued a restraining order against the city to
prevent the ordnance from taking effect.
(AP, 5/13/07)(Econ, 6/16/07, p.35)
2007 May 12, Joseph Rattigan
(87), former California state senator and justice, died. He
represented Sonoma County from 1958 to 1966. In 1966 Gov. Pat Brown
appointed him to the First District Court of Appeal in SF, where he
served for 18 years.
(SFC, 5/17/07, p.B5)
2007 May 12, Afghan lawmakers
voted to oust the foreign minister over the mishandling of the
expulsion of Afghan refugees from neighboring Iran. Mullah Dadullah,
the Taliban's most prominent military commander, was killed in a
US-led military operation in southern Afghanistan. The one-legged
fighter had orchestrated ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings.
Around 55 Taliban fighters were killed in two battles near the
Pakistan border.
(AP, 5/12/07)(AP, 5/13/07)(AFP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, In eastern Algeria
6 armed Islamist extremists were killed in Kabylia, in clashes with
the military in the run-up to legislative elections. Algeria's
official news agency APS said Algerian security forces had arrested
three Libyan Islamic militants planning to join al Qaeda's north
African wing. Algerian soldiers killed four armed militants in a
clash near the village of Ghoumrassa.
(AFP, 5/13/07)(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, Armenia held a
general election. Acting PM Serzh Sarkisian was elected prime
minister.
(Econ, 5/19/07, p.58)
2007 May 12, In Bolivia
President Evo Morales vowed to move forward with his campaign to
nationalize Bolivia's oil and gas industry while presiding over
ceremonies marking the transfer of two Brazilian-owned oil
refineries to state hands.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, A cutter of the
Dominican Republic picked up 3 men hauling in bales of cocaine
dropped from a plane that had originated in Venezuela. A US plane
and British helicopters took part in the seizure of a half-ton of
cocaine as Colombian drug traffic via Venezuela escalated.
(SFC, 7/2/07, p.A17)
2007 May 12, Egyptian security
forces arrested 59 Muslims in Bamha accused of setting fire to
Christian homes and shops the previous day in clashes over church
construction that underlined lingering sectarian tensions.
(Reuters, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In Finland
Bosnia-Herzegovina opened this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Marija Serifovic from Serbia won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest at
the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, early Sunday May 13, 2007 with a
song entitled 'Prayer.'
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, Eric Damfreville,
a French aid worker, returned to France after five weeks in Taliban
captivity in Afghanistan and made a plea for his captors to free
three Afghans seized with him.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, Guinean President
Lansana Conte agreed to replace his unpopular defense minister, a
key demand of soldiers leading a three-day-old military revolt.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim, the leader of Iraq's largest Shiite political party,
called for a "security agreement" to be negotiated between Iraq and
US-led forces to outline the authorities of each side in a further
indication of growing frustration over America's role in Iraq.
Iraq's parliament objected to the construction of walls around
Baghdad neighborhoods and called on PM Nouri al-Maliki to testify
about other security issues. 4 Americans and an Iraqi interpreter
were killed. 3 soldiers were captured south of Baghdad. The body of
Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. (20) of Torrance, Calif., was found a year
later in the Euphrates River. The bodies of Pvt. Byron W. Fouty (19)
of Waterford, Mich., and Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez (25), of Lawrence,
Mass., were found in July, 2008.
(AP, 5/12/07)(AP, 5/12/07)(AP, 5/12/08)(AP,
7/11/08)
2007 May 12, In Italy thousands
of people, including families with their children, poured into a
Rome piazza to protest a government bill that would give legal
rights to unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In Italy security
officials from Europe's largest countries backed a plan to profile
mosques on the continent and identify radical Islamic clerics who
raise the threat of homegrown terrorism.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, The leaders of
Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan reached a landmark pipeline
deal that will strengthen Moscow's control over Central Asia's
energy export routes. The deal will dramatically increase the amount
of natural gas Russia moves from Central Asia to Europe.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In Mexico a
severed head accompanied by a note of defiance from organized crime
gangs and two hand grenades was found outside a military barracks in
Veracruz state.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, A pregnant
Nicaraguan teenager (17) shot Kenneth A. Kinzel (53), her American
lover, and enlisted her siblings to help dismember the body. She
shot her live-in boyfriend because he threatened to kill her.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 12, In Nigeria Lora
Kabir, a Russian woman, set off with 50 volunteers on a
225-kilometer (140-mile) walk from polio-endemic Nigeria's most
populous city Kano to raise public awareness among parents of the
dangers of polio.
(AFP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, Gunbattles and
attacks killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens as Pakistan's
political crisis descended into violence between rival parties over
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the chief justice.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, Waves reaching 36
feet high thrashed France's Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean,
leaving two fishermen missing and flooding homes and hotels.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, Russia said that
it could not accept elements of a draft UN resolution on Kosovo
worked out by the US and EU nations, maintaining its strong
opposition to a Western-backed plan for the Serbian province's
independence.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, An unmanned
Russian cargo ship carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, equipment and
gifts blasted off en route to the international space station.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, The UN top
humanitarian official made a landmark visit to Mogadishu, but the
trip was disrupted by an explosion that killed four people near the
UN compound. John Holmes said he had come to push the government to
allow humanitarian aid to reach its people.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, A South Korean
cargo vessel sank after colliding with a Chinese freighter in heavy
fog in waters off northeast China. 16 crew were on board the
3,800-ton Golden Rose when it sank. The crew of the Chinese ship,
the 4,800-ton JinSheng, were unharmed and returned safely to Dalian.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 12, Taiwanese Premier
Su Tseng-chang resigned, days after he was defeated in the ruling
party's presidential primary.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, In the Turkish
port city of Izmir a bicycle bomb exploded in a market, killing one
and injuring 14 people on the eve of a planned mass anti-government
rally.
(Reuters, 5/12/07)
2007 May 12, Yemen said it was
recalling its ambassadors to Iran and Libya over what it sees as
their support for Shi'ite Muslim rebels involved in bloody clashes
with government forces. The government of Sunni-dominated Yemen
accused the rebels of seeking to oust its secular administration and
install Islamist rule.
(AP, 5/12/07)

2008 May 12, The US Supreme
Court affirmed a lower court ruling that multinational companies can
be sued in a US court for allegedly aiding and abetting the former
apartheid government in South Africa. Financial holdings prevented 4
justices from taking the case.
(www.csmonitor.com/2008/0513/p02s01-usju.htm)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A5)
2008 May 12, The US Postal
Service increased first-class postage a penny to 42 cents.
(SSFC, 5/11/08, p.A4)
2008 May 12, US immigration
agents arrested more than 300 people at Agriprocessors Inc, a kosher
meat plant in Postville, Iowa, amid an ongoing investigation into
identification theft, fraudulent use of Social Security numbers, and
for illegal immigrants.
(Reuters, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Powerset, a
SF-based Internet company founded in 2005, announced a limited
release of its search engine. Executives said it fielded queries in
natural language with attempts to deduce intent.
(SFC, 5/12/08, p.D1)(www.powerset.com/)
2008 May 12, Oakley Hall
(b.1920), prolific author and writing teacher, died in Nevada City.
His books included “Warlock" (1958) and “The Art and Craft of Novel
Writing" (1994).
(SFC, 5/14/08, p.A1)
2008 May 12, Robert
Rauschenberg (b.1925), Texas-born artist, died of heart failure in
Florida. His use of odd and everyday articles earned him regard as a
pioneer in pop art, first gaining fame in the 1950s.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Algeria 3
government troops were killed in an ambush allegedly set by the
Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) 120 kilometers (75
miles) east of Algiers in Bouira province.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Bangladesh a
ferry on the Ghorautura River capsized with nearly 150 passengers
and at least 44 people were killed.
(WSJ, 5/14/08, p.A13)
2008 May 12, Brazil announced
that it is forming a sovereign-wealth fund worth between $10 and $20
billion.
(WSJ, 5/13/08, p.A1)
2008 May 12, The Canadian
Federal Court said that Pakistan appears to have received a $500,000
bounty from the United States for the capture of Abdullah Khadr, a
Canadian wanted on charges of working with al Qaeda against US
forces in Afghanistan. Khadr was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 and
sent back to Canada in 2005.
(Reuters, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Chad closed its
border with Sudan and put a halt to bilateral trade, a minister
said, a day after Sudan severed diplomatic ties with Chad.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, The Commonwealth
re-admitted Pakistan as a full member after a six-month suspension
triggered by a clampdown by President Pervez Musharraf.
(AFP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Initial reports
said a 7.8 earthquake struck central China, killing over 9,000
people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their
school. 80% of the buildings had collapsed in Beichuan county in
Sichuan province. The death toll soon exceeded 12,000 in Sichuan
province alone. 18,645 were reported buried in debris in the city of
Mianyang, near the epicenter of the quake, whose magnitude was
raised to 7.9. The Sichuan quake ended up killing some 80,000
people. Scientists in 2009 linked the quake to the Zipingu Dam, 5.5
km from the epicenter. In 2009 an official tally said 5,335 students
were left dead or missing.
(AP, 5/1208)(AP, 5/13/08)(WSJ, 2/7/08, p.A6)(AP,
5/7/09)
2008 May 12-2008 May 13,
Chinese police detained 16 Tibetan Buddhist monks from eastern
Tibet's Mangkam county, who were allegedly involved in a series of
bombings in early April.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 May 12, The Arab Network
for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said that an Egyptian
government-owned Internet service provider on May 4 blocked the
Egyptian Movement for Change - Kefaya website, in the latest
crackdown on the country's cyber dissidents.
(AFP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Haitian
legislators rejected President Rene Preval's pick for prime
minister, extending a monthlong period without a functioning
government. International banker Ericq Pierre (63) lost a vote that
ended his candidacy 51 to 35, with nine abstentions.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, In India
Renault-Nissan and India's Bajaj group said they planned to make a
2,500-dollar car by early 2011, the second effort to make a cheap
car for the South Asian nation's rapidly growing middle class.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Representatives of
firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and lawmakers from Iraq's main
Shiite political bloc signed a four-day cease-fire in an effort to
end seven weeks of fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City slum. The fragile
cease-fire failed to stop fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City where
clashes between Shiite extremists and US-backed Iraqi forces killed
11 men and wounded 19. The latest cease-fire came as the US military
largely finished the building of a barrier to isolate extremists
from using the southern section of Sadr City and disrupt supply and
escape routes for militants.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Iraqi Kurdish
officials said Turkish jets overnight struck suspected Kurdish rebel
targets close to the border in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Israel’s police
raided Jerusalem’s city hall and seized documents as part of the
corruption probe of PM Ehud Olmert. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman, just as an Egyptian
mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, In Lebanon heavy
fighting broke out between government supporters and opponents in
Tripoli, where the two sides battled with rocket-propelled grenades,
heavy machine guns and mortars.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Mexican
authorities said a police officer and four other people, with
suspected ties to a powerful drug cartel, have been arrested in the
May 8 assassination of Edgar Millan Gomez, the acting federal police
chief.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 12, Myanmar state
television put the death toll for Cyclone Nargis at 31,938 with
29,770 people missing. The US White House said it was extending an
extra 13 million dollars in aid as the first US flight of emergency
supplies landed in the country.
(AP, 5/12/08)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A3)
2008 May 12, Former prime
minister Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of Pakistan's
six-week-old coalition government, plunging the volatile Muslim
nation back into political uncertainty.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Irena Sendler
(b.1910), Polish savior of WWII Jewish children in the Warsaw
ghetto, died in Warsaw. She saved some 2,500 Jewish children by
smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them with false
documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's
homes outside the Ghetto.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler)(Econ, 5/24/08,
p.110)(www.irenasendler.org/)
2008 May 12, Serbia's
pro-European alliance sought a coalition deal with smaller parties
on to stave off a challenge from nationalist runners-up who say they
too can form a government after Sunday's parliamentary election.
With about 98% of votes counted, the Democratic Party had 38.75% and
the nationalist Radical Party 29.2%.
(Reuters, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, South Korean
officials said they have killed all poultry in Seoul, to curb the
spread of bird flu following a new outbreak of the disease in the
city.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Sudan arrested its
leading fundamentalist Islamic ideologue, accusing him of aiding a
Darfur rebel attack on the capital. Hassan Turabi was arrested after
dawn at his home in Khartoum and at least 10 other members of his
Popular Congress Party members were detained in a government sweep
across the city. Authorities released al-Turabi and four members of
his party after detaining them for several hours.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, In Vietnam 2
reporters were arrested for their coverage of a bribery, gambling
and corruption scandal. Their arrests led to a highly unusual
confrontation between Vietnam's Communist government and the
country's state-controlled newspapers. The scandal, which erupted in
2005, led to the conviction of 9 people, including several
government officials.
(AP, 5/14/08)

2009 May 12, The US won a seat
on the UN Human Rights Council for the first time along with Cuba,
Saudi Arabia, China and Russia, four countries accused of serious
human rights violations.
(SFC, 5/13/09, p.A2)
2009 May 12, Five more people
were arrested at the Senate Finance Committee this morning. The
advocates of a single payer health care system were protesting the
fact that Committee chairman Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana)
continues to exclude single payer advocates from a series of
hearings on health care reform. Last week, eight doctors, lawyers
and activists were arrested as they sought to put a single payer
advocate at a table of 15 witnesses. Baucus has reportedly accepted
$413,000 in drug and health insurance campaign contributions.
(SFC, 5/30/09,
p.A7)(www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=690)
2009 May 12, A federal jury in
New York convicted Oussama Kassir, a Lebanese-born Swede, of
plotting to help Al-Qaida recruit for a weapons training post in
Bly, Oregon in 1999 and for distributing terrorist training manuals
over the Internet. On Sep 15 Kassir was sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/13/09, p.A4)(SFC, 9/16/09, p.A8)
2009 May 12, Medicare’s
trustees warned that the program’s biggest fund would run out of
money in 8 years.
(SFC, 5/13/09, p.A4)
2009 May 12, In Utah partitions
known as “Zion curtains" began coming down as a new law came into
effect allowing bartenders to serve patrons directly over the bar.
This ended Utah’s requirement that people who wanted a drink join a
“private club."
(SFC, 5/13/09, p.A8)(Economist, 9/8/12, p.66)
2009 May 12, John Demjanjuk,
retired Ohio autoworker, arrived at a German prison after 3 decades
of fighting in court. He was deported from the US to face
allegations of being an accessory to the murder of 29,000 Jews and
others as a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In eastern
Afghanistan 11 Taliban suicide bombers attacked government buildings
in Khost, sparking running gunbattles that killed at least 20 people
and wounded three US troops. US and Afghan troops freed 20 hostages
taken by the insurgents. Another 98 Afghan girls were rushed to
hospital in the latest in a spate of mysterious poisonings to hit
three schools north of Kabul in a fortnight. Militants fired several
rockets at two other US military bases in eastern Paktika province.
Six militants were killed when US troops used artillery and
airstrikes to fire back. Two people not involved in the fight were
also killed.
(AP, 5/12/09)(AFP, 5/12/09)(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 12, Treasurer Wayne
Swan said Australia will post a record 57.6 billion Australian
dollar (44.1 billion US) deficit in 2009-10 as it battles the worst
global recession since the Great Depression.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Vittorio Calao
head of Vodafone, a British mobile phone operator, announced a plan
to build a joint global platform through which software companies
and content providers could sell things to mobile subscribers.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.75)
2009 May 12, In Iraq a suicide
bomber rammed his car into a police truck in the northern city of
Kirkuk, killing five policemen and a civilian.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Italian
anti-terrorism investigators said two French citizens behind bars
since last year on suspicion of smuggling migrants were al-Qaida
propaganda point men in Europe and were heard talking in jail about
a possible attack on a Paris airport. Bassam Ayachi (62) and Raphael
Frederic Gendron (33) were served warrants in jail accusing them of
criminal association for international terrorism. The men have been
held in Bari since November when they were arrested on suspicion of
smuggling two Syrians and three Palestinians into Italy.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Vladimir Voronin
(68), Moldova's former president, was voted head of parliament by
his Communist Party colleagues. Three opposition parties boycotted
the ballot, claiming the country's April 5 election was rigged.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Moroccan
authorities announced the arrest of a group of alleged Islamists,
who planned to attack Jewish interests in the country. The suspects,
alleged to be members of a cell that was part of the radical
Islamist movement Salafia Jihadia, were also said to be preparing
attacks against Moroccan security services.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 12, In Pakistan
helicopter-borne soldiers swooped into a Taliban stronghold in a
remote corner of Swat, as the UN urged help for hundreds of
thousands of people displaced by the fighting. A suspected US drone
attack killed up to eight people in South Waziristan, a remote
tribal area near the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 5/12/09)(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Peruvian Foreign
Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said former Bolivian ministers
Mirtha Quevedo and Javier Torres Goitia requested and have received
refugee status, a legal measure that, unlike asylum, does not denote
political persecution. They are among the former ministers of former
Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada, charged with genocide for
sending soldiers who killed 63 people in 2003 while quelling
anti-government protests in the city of El Alto.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In Peru a new law
went into effect that says officers will be fired for taking bribes
and abusing detainees. It also said police officers who "damage the
image" of law enforcement by engaging in homosexual behavior can
lose their jobs.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 12, In Somalia a human
rights activist said 113 civilians have been killed in fierce
fighting in Mogadishu in the past three days. Some 10,000 civilians
fled their homes, raising the number displaced by the fighting to
more than 27,000.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels accused government forces of killing at least 47 people
in an artillery and mortar attack on a hospital. The island's
military denied the charges. The defense ministry said its troops
had captured more ground in the latest fighting and had recovered 35
rebel bodies.
(AFP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In Switzerland a
rare 7.03-carat blue diamond sold for 9.3 million Swiss francs (more
than $8.4 million), the highest price ever for a gem of its kind,
according to Sotheby's.
(AP, 5/12/09)

2010 May 12, President Barack
Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met at the White House in a
show of unity aimed at patching over differences at a pivotal time
in the nearly nine-year-old war.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In San Francisco
Mayor Newsom presided over the official dedication of a 3-story,
15-ton Buddha sculpture, “Three heads Six Arms" by artist Zhang
Huan, to mark the city’s 30th anniversary sister city relationship
with Shanghai. The one year lease expired and the work was
dismantled on Feb 15, 2011, for return to Zhang Huan.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.C1)(SFC, 2/14/11, p.C1)
2010 May 12, In southern
Afghanistan violence erupted where an American and a Romanian
soldier were killed. Attackers on motorcycles shot and killed the
No. 2 prisons official in the southern province of Kandahar. The
Taliban claimed responsibility for assassinating the prison official
and an explosion injured at least three people. A bomb exploded near
a police training center in Kandahar city, injuring at least three
people. Allied forces killed five insurgents after a joint patrol
came under fire in the Sangin district of Helmand province while
searching for a Pakistan-based Taliban commander.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, In the Bahamas
Clive Tomlinson, a Jamaican, was killed. On May 14 authorities
charged Daniel Andres Ayo (27) and Luis Mendez (39), two tourists
from Florida, with the killing during what police say was a drug
deal gone bad.
(AP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 12, Britain's first
coalition government since 1945 unveiled its ministerial team on and
said it would speed up efforts to cut the country's budget deficit
as it emerges from a deep recession. A deal was struck between
Cameron’s Conservative party and the third-placed Liberal Democrats
with Nick Clegg (43) to serve as deputy premier. The Conservatives
became parliament's largest party after last week's election, but
fell 20 seats short of an outright majority. With the LibDems, they
will have a majority of 76 seats.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In northwest China
7 children and the owners of a kindergarten were hacked to death in
Nanzheng county, a rural corner of Shaanxi province. Wu Huanming
(48) used a kitchen cleaver to kill five boys and two girls as well
as the mother-son team who owned and ran the private kindergarten.
He then returned home and committed suicide. This latest in a string
of assaults on schools, prompted officials to vow to "strike hard"
to calm public alarm.
(Reuters, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In Dubai James
Ibori, former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state
(1999-2007), was arrested on a UK warrant. Nigerian anti-graft
agency chief Farida Waziri said Ibori was wanted on charges of
stealing 44 billion naira ($292 million) in state funds while he was
in office. In July Ibori was scheduled for extradition to Britain.
(AP, 5/14/10)(AFP, 7/26/10)
2010 May 12, German software
titan SAP agreed to buy database company Sybase, based in Dublin,
Ca., for $5.8 billion.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.D1)
2010 May 12, The European Union
set out plans to vet member state budgets before national
parliaments do in a power-grab that could trigger a divisive
referendum in Britain and provoked Swedish anger. Spain announced
big public sector wage cuts and market sentiment buoyed by positive
growth figures as several states shook off recession.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, In Indonesia 5
suspected terrorists were killed in two raids, the latest in a
series of anti-terror operations nationwide. 3 were killed in
Cawang, East Jakarta, and 2 others in the West Java city of
Cikampek. One of the suspects killed in the second raid was Saptono,
who was involved in a suicide car bomb attack which killed 10 people
outside the Australian embassy in 2004. Two days of raids around
Java also detained 20 people.
(AFP, 5/12/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.45)
2010 May 12, In Iraq more than
a thousand Kurds poured into the streets of the northern Iraqi city
of Sulaimaniyah in a growing wave of outrage, blaming authorities
for the kidnapping and murder of a young Kurdish journalist. A late
night car bomb tore through a cafe in Baghdad's Sadr City
neighborhood killing nine people. It appeared to have detonated
prematurely, also blowing up three suspected militants in the
vehicle. The dead included young people who had gathered to drink
tea and play dominoes. A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol
in Baghdad's central al-Nahda square, killing a bystander and
wounding 8 others, including five policemen. An Iraqi army
lieutenant was shot dead by a sniper in the afternoon while manning
a checkpoint in New Baghdad.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AP, 5/13/10)(SFC, 5/13/10,
p.A2)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 12, Kazakh lawmakers
approved amendments to the constitution that will give President
Nursultan Nazarbayev lifetime immunity from prosecution for acts
committed during his rule and the right to approve important
national and foreign policies after he retires.
(AP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, A Libyan Afriqiyah
Airways Airbus A330-200 carrying 104 people crashed on approach to
Tripoli's airport. Ruben van Assouw, a Dutch boy (9), was the only
known survivor. The Royal Dutch Tourism Board said 61 of the dead
came from the Netherlands.
(AP, 5/12/10)(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 12, Macedonian police
said a shootout between police and an armed group near the country's
border with Kosovo has left four people dead. Police had intercepted
them attempting to smuggle weapons across the border from Kosovo.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, Mexico’s army
overran a Zeta camp in Nuevo Leone state seizing 55,000 rounds of
ammunition, 109 grenades and 124 heavy weapons among other booty.
(Econ, 6/5/10, p.46)
2010 May 12, Former Nigerian
minister Nasir el-Rufai appeared in court on charges of doling out
government lands to associates and family members during his four
years in office. The minister of the federal capital territory (FCT)
Abuja from 2003 to 2007 faced charges of criminal conspiracy and
abuse of office following an investigation by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
(AFP, 5/13/10)
2010 May 12, Pakistani Taliban
shot and killed two men whom they accused of spying for the United
States, while a bomb ripped through a NATO oil tanker near the
Afghan border and killed a passer-by.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, Peru’s Health
Ministry reported that an estimated 1.5 million or 5% of its
citizens were alcoholics, and that it was now the 2nd leading cause
of illness and death.
(SSFC, 5/16/10, p.A4)
2010 May 12, In South Korea
there were two separate cases of suspected group suicide. 4 women
and one man — all in their 20s and 30s — were found dead inside a
parked car in Hwaseong. 2 of the five left suicide notes. 3 men were
found dead hours later in Chuncheon, about 85 km (50 miles) east of
Seoul.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, Spain’s PM
Zapatero announced sweeping spending cuts totaling $19 billion that
included 5% pay cuts for civil servants and 15% cuts for government
ministers.
(SFC, 5/13/10, p.A3)
2010 May 12, Turkey and Russia
signed agreements for the construction of Turkey's first nuclear
power plant and the development of a pipeline project to carry
Russian oil from the Black Sea, through Turkey to the Mediterranean.
(AP, 5/12/10)
2010 May 12, The UN
peacekeeping mission in Sudan said Clashes between rival Arab tribes
have claimed 107 lives since March in Darfur, warning of a buildup
of government and rebel troops in the region.
(AFP, 5/12/10)

2011 May 12, In Arizona 2
Border Patrol agents were killed when their SUV was struck by a
freight train near Gila Bend.
(SFC, 5/13/11, p.A4)
2011 May 12, In Texas a judge
freed a Dallas man who spent 27 years in prison for aggravated
sexual assault before DNA evidence cleared him. Johnny Pinchback
became the 22nd person to be exonerated through DNA testing in
Dallas County since 2001. He was found to have been wrongly
convicted of raping two teenage girls in a Dallas field in 1984.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In Washington
state Hana Williams (~13), an adopted girl from Ethiopia, was found
dead in the backyard of the family home in Sedro-Woolley, about 60
miles north of Seattle. An autopsy found she died of hypothermia,
with malnutrition and a stomach condition as contributing factors.
On Sep 9, 2013, Larry and Carri Williams were convicted of
manslaughter and faced long prison terms.
(AP, 10/29/13)
2011 May 12, Journalists
learned that PR agency Burston-Marsteller had tried to persuade
newspaper writers to say nasty things about Google, while concealing
that Facebook was paying for the lobbying.
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.72)
2011 May 12, Arctic Council
members signed an agreement in Greenland to coordinate search and
rescue operations and pledged to create int’l. protocols to prevent
and clean up offshore oil spills. The 8 members included the Canada,
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA.
(SFC, 5/13/11, p.A2)
2011 May 12, In Australia two
Malaysians were arrested and charged with importing heroin into
Australia with a street value of more than Aus$50 million (US$53
million), the country's biggest haul in a decade.
(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Chinese
authorities arrested 40 people for allegedly trafficking at least 22
babies for sale. The ring bought babies in Yunnan, one of China's
most impoverished provinces, and sold them to families in relatively
prosperous Fujian.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In China Xu
Maiyong (52), a former vice mayor of the wealthy resort city of
Hangzhou, was sentenced to death on corruption charges, one of the
harshest sentences handed down to a high-level Chinese official in
recent years.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Colombia’s Pres.
Juan Manuel Santos singed a law creating incentives for soccer clubs
to become limited companies and attract new investors and to report
to the finance ministry’s money-laundering unit.
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.38)
2011 May 12, In Egypt Abeer
Fakhri, a Christian woman whose affair with a Muslim sparked deadly
sectarian clashes, was detained and faced charges that included
polygamy.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 12, In Germany retired
US autoworker John Demjanjuk (91) was convicted of thousands of
counts of acting as an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp and
sentenced on to five years in prison, a groundbreaking verdict that
closed one chapter in a decades-long legal battle. Judges ordered
him released pending appeal.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh offered Afghanistan $500 million in fresh aid, during his
first visit to the war-torn country since 2005.
(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In Japan TEPCO
officials said one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear
power plant has been damaged more severely than originally thought,
a serious setback for efforts to stabilize the radiation-leaking
complex.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, NATO airstrikes
struck Moammar Gadhafi's sprawling compound in Tripoli and three
other sites reportedly killing 3 people, hours after the Libyan
leader was shown on state TV in his first appearance since his son
was killed nearly two weeks ago.
(AP, 5/12/11)(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Mexican
authorities fired 7 regional directors of the immigration agency
following allegations that officers in the north had delivered
migrants to kidnapping gangs. The Mexican army said that they had
detained one of the main leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, led by
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Martin Beltran Coronel, alias "The
Eagle," was arrested along with four other people in an exclusive
neighborhood of Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara. He had replaced
Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, the cartel's reputed No. 3 capo gunned down
in Guadalajara in July 2010. The bodies of 8 decapitated men were
dumped along roads in Durango state, where the 196 bodies have been
unearthed in mass graves.
(SFC, 5/13/11, p.A2)(AP, 5/13/11)(SFC, 5/13/11,
p.A2)
2011 May 12, In northern
Nigeria two motorcycle-riding gunmen opened fire on local chief Abba
Mukhtar outside his home in Maiduguri, killing him and seriously
wounding a friend. In the northwest gunmen kidnapped an Italian and
a Briton who had been working for a construction company in the
state capital of Birnin-Kebbi. Italian engineer Franco Lamolinara
(48) and his British colleague Chris McManus (28) were shot dead by
their captors during a British-Nigerian rescue attempt on March 8,
2012.
(AFP, 5/13/11)(AP, 5/14/11)(AP, 3/9/12)
2011 May 12, A Pakistani court
ruled that President Asif Ali Zardari must relinquish his position
as co-chairman of Pakistan's ruling party, a decision that could
strip him of his main source of power and cause fresh political
conflict in the country. A US drone aircraft fired missiles at
militants, killing eight of them.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In the southern
Philippines communist rebels killed a security guard for an
American-owned gold mining company and took the weapons of three
others.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Qatar pulled out
of an effort to mediate an end to Yemen's political crisis, blaming
the country's embattled president for the impasse and potentially
leaving his regime even more isolated among his neighbors.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 12, Russia and
Pakistan pledged to boost economic ties and coordinate efforts to
fight terror as the Kremlin welcomed the Pakistani president for a
key visit after the killing of Osama bin Laden.
(AFP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, In Somalia AU
forces killed several militants in a battle in Mogadishu. Three AU
soldiers were also wounded. AU mission spokesman Paddy Ankunda said
al-Shabab militants, who are trying to overthrow the government,
lost ground in the battle. The body of a fighter who appeared to be
a member of the AU's peacekeeping mission was pulled through the
streets by a rope.
(AP, 5/12/11)(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 12, Sweden’s
struggling car maker Saab Automobile faced renewed uncertainty
Thursday as the financing deal with China's Hawtai Motor Group fell
apart, raising fresh concerns about the company's future. Spyker
Cars NV, which bought Saab from General Motors Corp. in 2010, said
it was "forced to terminate" the $223 million (euro150 million)
agreement with Hawtai since the Chinese company was not able to
obtain all the necessary consents, including approvals from
different shareholders.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Syrian soldiers
and tanks executing a nationwide crackdown on regime opponents
surrounded the city of Hama.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Uganda police
sprayed tear gas at rock-throwing opposition supporters, after the
country's top opposition leader returned home and while the 25-year
leader was sworn in to a fourth term.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 12, Yemeni police
trying to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters in
Al-Bayda and Taiz killed 2 people and injured 45, including some of
them by gunfire. In one of the cities, protesters took over an Oil
Ministry building.
(AP, 5/12/11)(AP, 5/13/11)

2012 May 12, California Gov.
Jerry Brown said the state’s budget deficit has swelled to a
projected $16 billion — much larger than had been predicted just
months ago — and will force severe cuts to schools and public safety
if voters fail to approve tax increases in November.
(AP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks killed three NATO troops, while a fourth died of
non-battle related injuries. A roadside bomb in the northwest killed
four Afghan policemen. Two members of the Afghan police opened fire
on British soldiers who were mentoring them in Lashkar Gah, killing
two. One of the gunmen was killed and the other escaped.
(AP, 5/12/12)(Reuters, 5/13/12)
2012 May 12, China said it
would cut reserve requirements for banks, after disappointing
economic data raised fears of a sharp slowdown in the world's second
largest economy.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, CongoDRC
government forces launched airstrikes against mutineers near the
Rwandan border, where a rebel leader known as the "Terminator" was
said to be hiding.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, The WWF nature
conservancy body said a ranger and two soldiers have been killed in
Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga national park as they
protected a road used by civilians fleeing rebels.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, Ivory Coast and
Burkina Faso envoys of ECOWAS quit Mali after failing to reach
agreement with coup leaders on naming the head of a transitional
government. The ex-junta now hoped that coup leader Amadou Haya
Sanago take over as interim leader.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, In Lebanon an army
officer was killed by sniper fire after clashes broke out between
the army and a group of young Islamists, who were demonstrating in
Tripoli for the release of a terrorism suspect. A resident of the
largely Sunni district of Kobbe was killed in clashes between
factions supporting and opposed to the revolt in neighboring Syria.
Five people were left injured. Shadi Mawlawi, an outspoken Lebanese
critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad, was arrested and set off
several days of clashes in northern Lebanon. Mawlawi was released on
May 22.
(AFP, 5/13/12)(AP, 5/22/12)
2012 May 12, The presidents of
Mozambique and Malawi signed an electricity agreement in Maputo in a
first step to restore troubled relations between the two southern
African neighbors.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, In New Zealand 3
Boston University students, who were studying in New Zealand, were
killed when their minivan crashed. At least five other students from
the university were injured in the accident. On May 18 BU student
Stephen Houseman (20) was charged with careless driving.
(AP, 5/12/12)(SFC, 5/19/12, p.A2)
2012 May 12, In Nigeria gunmen
stormed Mafa police station in Borno state killing 2 policemen and
one civilian.
(AFP, 5/14/12)
2012 May 12, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb targeting a vehicle carrying police killed one officer
in Peshawar.
(AP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, In South Korea
Expo 2012 opened in the coastal city of Yeosu for a three-month run.
(AP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, The first group of
ethnic South Sudanese, among up to 15,000 camped in Sudan, began
their journey home ahead of a major airlift to begin May 13.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, In Spain masses of
chanting "indignant" activists poured into the streets across the
country in a vast show of strength one year on from igniting a
global protest against economic injustice. The marches, held in 80
cities and towns across Spain, launched a four-day protest that will
end on May 15, the anniversary of the movement's birth -- dubbed
15-M.
(AFP, 5/12/12)
2012 May 12, Ugandan forces
captured Caesar Acellam, a senior commander of Joseph Kony's Lord's
Resistance Army, after a brief fight with rebels near the
Congo-Central African Republic border. Two other rebel fighters were
also caught as they tried to cross a river called Mbomu. Officials
say only about 200 LRA members remain the jungle.
(AP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 12, In Yemen US drones
killed 12 militants in two separate attacks east of the capital
Sanaa. Air strikes also hit Jaar, killing three Al-Qaeda gunmen and
a civilian, and wounding three civilians.
(AFP, 5/13/12)

2013 May 12, In California the
5-day BottleRock music festival in Napa came to a close. Napa’s
first major music festival was organized by WillPower Entertainment.
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.E1)
2013 May 12, In Louisiana
gunmen opened fire on people marching in a neighborhood Mother's Day
parade in New Orleans. At least 19 people were wounded including 2
kids. Police saw 3 suspects running from the scene. People later
identified Akein Scott (19) as the shooter. Scott was arrested on
May 15. His brother Shawn Scott (24) was arrested on May 16. Five
others were soon accused of helping the suspects avoid capture.
(AP, 5/12/13)(SFC, 5/14/13, p.A7)(SFC, 5/16/13,
p.A6)(AP, 5/17/13)
2013 May 12, Kyle Dube (20) of
Orono, Maine, used a phony Facebook account created in the name of a
student from another school to lure Nichole Cable (15) outside her
Glenburn home. He abducted and killed her. Her body was found more
than a week later in a wooded area of Old Town, north of Bangor.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 May 12, Kevin Orr,
Michigan’s state appointed emergency manager for Detroit, released a
report sayhing the city is broke and its deficit could reach $386
million in less than two months.
(SFC, 5/14/13, p.A4)
2013 May 12, New Jersey police
shot and killed Gerald Tyrone Murphy (38), a registered sex
offender, ending a 37-hour ordeal during which Murphy held 3
children of girlfriend Carmelita Stevens (44) hostage. Inside the
home police found the decomposing bodies of Stevens and a son (13).
(SFC, 5/13/13, p.A6)
2013 May 12, In Pennsylvania a
late night house fire in Pottsville killed 4 children, their father
and an aunt as the mother did laundry at a friend’s house across the
street.
(SFC, 5/14/13, p.A5)
2013 May 12, Bulgarians voted
in parliamentary elections. The center-right Citizens for Bulgaria's
European Development party (GERB) of former PM Boiko Borisov won
31%, falling far short of winning a majority needed to form a
government. with no willing partners to join a coalition. This left
the second-place (27%) opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party (DPS) in
position to lead a new government.
(AP, 5/12/13)(AP, 5/13/13)(Econ, 5/18/13, p.60)
2013 May 12, Global Witness
presented a report “Rubber Barons" on illegal logging and land
grabbing in Cambodia by local and foreign companies, including the
Vietnam Rubber Group.
(Econ, 5/18/13,
p.46)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=3epqpR9OBhY)
2013 May 12, China’s ruling
Communist Party's disciplinary agency said in a one-sentence
statement on its website that Liu Tienan, deputy head of the
Cabinet's National Development and Reform Commission, is being
investigated for "suspected serious disciplinary violations." On Aug
8 the party’s antigraft agency said that an investigation had found
Liu took bribes and abused his power. He was expelled from the CP
and faced prosecution.
(AP, 5/12/13)(SFC, 8/9/13, p.A2)
2013 May 12, In Egypt Romany
Amir, a Coptic Christian, committed suicide as he was waiting to be
interrogated by police at the main court in the southern city of
Assiut. He had stabbed his wife a day earlier for converting to
Islam. She remained in critical condition.
(AP, 5/12/13)
2013 May 12, In Iraq gunfire
attacks killed five people. They included 3 civilians in Mishada, a
police officer in Baghdad and Ali Hussein, a Sunni member of the
Basra Provincial Council.
(AP, 5/12/13)
2013 May 12, It was reported
that an upsurge of gang rapes has hit the breakaway region of
Somaliland. Rights activists and medical officials said least 84
women have been raped since the beginning of this year.
(AP, 5/12/13)
2013 May 12, In Syria 6 mortar
shells struck the Damascus neighborhood of the Alawite district of
Mazzeh 86 causing damage and casualties. Regime forces retook
Khirbet Ghazaleh and rebels withdrew from the area. Troops reopened
the Damascus-Jordan highway, restoring the supply line between
Damascus and the provincial capital of Daraa.
(AP, 5/12/13)(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 May 12, Pope Francis gave
the Catholic Church new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century
martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam.
(AP, 5/12/13)
2013 May 12, Zimbabwe's state
radio said police have arrested three polling campaigners for
illegally promoting voter awareness ahead of crucial elections.
(AP, 5/12/13)

2014 May 12, In Louisiana
Reginald Adams was freed from prison after spending 34 years in jail
for a murder he did not commit. Detectives knowingly gave false
testimony at his trial.
(Econ, 5/17/14, p.28)
2014 May 12, In Afghanistan the
Taliban unleashed a wave of attacks to mark the start of their
spring offensive, storming a government building in the east where
attackers killed 2 police guards and 5 civilians, and striking a
police checkpoint to the south and killing 9 policemen.
(AP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, Chad announced it
was shutting down its southern border with the strife-wracked
Central African Republic until the conflict in the poor, landlocked
nation is resolved.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, A European human
rights monitor urged Georgia to improve its justice system, promote
tolerance and avoid the selective prosecution of officials who
served former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
(Reuters, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, The European Court
of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Turkey to pay 90 million euros ($124
million) in damages for its 1974 invasion of Cyprus, the largest
such ruling in its history. Turkish officials the next day said that
the country will not pay the fine.
(CSM, 5/13/14)
2014 May 12, Millions of Indian
voters wrapped up the country's mammoth national election, braving
the searing sun on the final day of polling in which Narendra Modi,
a Hindu nationalist opposition candidate, is seen as the
front-runner for prime minister.
(AP, 5/12/14)(Reuters, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, Indonesia said it
has banned the popular video sharing site Vimeo, because it contains
nudity, which officials in the world's most populous Muslim country
consider to be pornographic material.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 12, Italian
authorities said a boat carrying hundreds of migrants has sunk south
off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. At least 14 people were killed
with 206 rescued.
(Reuters, 5/12/14)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A4)
2014 May 12, Nayef al-Ajmi,
Kuwait's justice and Islamic affairs minister, said the Gulf state's
ruler has accepted his resignation. In March US Treasury
Undersecretary David Cohen said al-Ajmi had called for jihad in
Syria and promoted the funding of terrorism.
(Reuters, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, Lorenzo Zambrano,
the head of Mexico’s Cemex Corp., died unexpectedly in Madrid.
(Econ, 5/17/14, p.64)
2014 May 12, Boko Haram
released a new video claiming to show the missing Nigerian
schoolgirls, alleging they had converted to Islam and would not be
released until all militant prisoners were freed.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, In Pakistan Qari
Naseer (27) and two friends raped a college girl (20) in a moving
car. Naseer, a teacher at a Quranic school in Mansehra, and the two
friends were soon arrested. He was suspected of having filmed and
blackmailed other victims.
(AP, 5/14/14)
2014 May 12, In Spain Isabel
Carrasco (b.1955), a local bigwig in the People’s Party of PM
Mariano Rajoy, was shot dead by the mother of a young woman who had
been let go from her government job.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Carrasco)
2014 May 12, Russia made it
clear that Moscow has no intention of immediately annexing two
regions in eastern Ukraine after a weekend referendum there showed
most voters allegedly backing sovereignty.
(AP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, In South Africa 2
Lonmin workers were killed as they reported for work at their
strike-hit platinum mine, threatening the firm's plans to end the
walkout this week.
(Reuters, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, Syrian media said
rebels have agreed to free 1,500 families in Adra in exchange for
food and the release of jailed opponents of President Bashar
al-Assad.
(AFP, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, In eastern Ukraine
insurgents in Luhansk said they wouldn't hold the scheduled May 25
presidential vote.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 12, A confidential new
report by a UN panel of experts highlighted Iran's methods of
evading sanctions - from concealing titanium tubes inside steel
pipes to using its petrochemical industry as a cover to obtain items
for a heavy-water nuclear reactor.
(Reuters, 5/12/14)
2014 May 12, In southern Yemen
a suspected US drone strike killed six al-Qaida militants in Marib
province.
(AP, 5/12/14)

2015 May 12, In Arizona 5 men
and women were found shot dead in a Tucson home. Christopher Carillo
(25) killed 4 of his family members before fatally shooting himself.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)(SFC, 5/14/15, p.A6)
2015 May 12, In NYC three
Somali-born men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to support terrorism.
(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A5)
2015 May 12, In Pennsylvania an
Amtrak derailment late today killed 8 people. Brandon Bostian (32)
was at the helm of the train when it derailed while traveling at 106
miles per hour, more than double the limit.
(AFP, 5/13/15)(SFC, 5/15/15, p.A7)
2015 May 12, In Texas Derrick
Dewayne Charles (32) was executed by lethal injection at the
Huntsville prison for killing his girlfriend (15), her mother and
her grandfather nearly 13 years ago in Houston. This was the state’s
7th execution this year.
(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A5)
2015 May 12, Verizon announced
a $4.4 billion all-cash deal to buy AOL.
(SFC, 5/13/15, p.C1)
2015 May 12, In Afghanistan
Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif promised coordinated military operations
with Afghan forces to hunt down militants along their shared border,
saying on a visit to Kabul that he condemned a recent Taliban
offensive.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, In Bangladesh
blogger and banker Ananta Bijoy Das (33) was hacked to death by
machete-wielding attackers, the third killing of a critic of
religious extremism in the Muslim-majority nation in less than three
months.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Burundi police
opened fire on protesters as President Pierre Nkurunziza defied
international pressure to end a controversial third term bid.
(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Eritrean diplomat
Mohammed Idris, from the Red Sea state's mission to the African
Union, sought asylum in Ethiopia, citing rights abuses at home.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)
2015 May 12, The European
Central Bank raised the cap on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA)
that Greek banks can draw from the country's central bank by 1.1
billion euros, taking the ceiling to 80 billion euros.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, French President
Francois Hollande arrived in Haiti to sign cooperation agreements
and support reconstruction efforts that continue since the deadly
2010 earthquake.
(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Die Zeit Online
reported that Germany's BND intelligence agency sends mammoth
amounts of phone and text data to the US National Security Agency
(NSA) each month.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Indonesia police
said seven people have been arrested on charges of human trafficking
including two Indonesians and five Thais.
(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A2)
2015 May 12, In northern Iraq a
bomb blast killed senior Kurdish Maj. Gen. Salah Delmani as well as
two of his bodyguards. Delmani was prominent in the fight against
the Islamic State group.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, In Iraq Abu Alaa
al-Afari (aka Abdul Rahman Mustafa Mohammed), the second most senior
member of Islamic State, was killed in a coalition air strike on a
mosque where he was meeting with other militants at a mosque in Tal
Afar. 6 people were killed in two attacks against worshippers
walking towards the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim in northwestern
Baghdad.
(AP, 5/13/15)(AFP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 12, Israel's Supreme
Court rejected a petition by residents of the unrecognized Bedouin
village of Umm al-Hiran against their removal and the demolition of
the community – in order to construct a new town for Jewish
residents in its place.
(www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.655145)
2015 May 12, Malaysia said it
would turn away any more migrant boats packed with Rohingya and
Bangladeshis unless they were sinking.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Mozambican police
seized 340 elephant tusks and 65 rhino horns from a house in the
city of Matola. Two Chinese citizens were arrested. Mozambique's
elephant population has dropped from just over 20,000 to about
10,300 since 2009.
(AP, 5/28/15)
2015 May 12, In Myanmar corpses
began to wash ashore in Rakhine state. By May 24 47 bodies had
washed up on beaches and the mouths of rivers. Some were believed to
be Rohingya Muslims and others Bangladeshis trying to escape
trafficking ships.
(SFC, 6/3/15, p.A2)
2015 May 12, In Nepal a
magnitude 7.3 earthquake killed at least 91 people, bringing down
buildings already weakened by a devastating tremor less than three
weeks ago and unleashing landslides in Himalayan valleys near Mount
Everest. 17 people were reported killed in India.
(AP, 5/12/15)(Reuters, 5/12/15)(SFC, 5/14/15,
p.A2)
2015 May 12, In Nepal an
American military UH-1Y Huey helicopter delivering aid in Dolakha
went missing with six Marines, two Nepali soldiers and 5 injured
passengers on board. Wreckage was found on May 15 with no survivors.
(Reuters, 5/13/15)(Reuters, 5/15/15)(AP, 6/5/15)
2015 May 12, In southwest
Pakistan gunmen shot and killed two paramilitary troops and two
workers for an army-owned company at a canal construction site in in
the Kolachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, The Philippines
became the first country to come up with national rules governing
Uber and other ride-sharing services with new country-wide
guidelines for the likes of Uber and GrabTaxi to be published on May
13.
(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Russian opposition
activists said least 220 Russian soldiers have been killed in east
Ukraine in a report offering what they called "ample evidence" to
rebut President Vladimir Putin's denial his troops are fighting
there. The report, the last project of murdered Kremlin critic Boris
Nemtsov, also said Russia had spent more than 53 billion rubles
($1.04 billion) in 10 months to fund the conflict and deprived
people of 2.75 trillion rubles of money lost to inflation.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, In Singapore Amos
Yee (16) was convicted on charges of obscenity and insulting
religious feelings related to his posting a video criticizing Lee
Kuan Yew (1923-2015), the founding father of modern Singapore.
(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A2)
2015 May 12, In South Africa
Lawyers for Human Rights obtained a court order to halt any
deportations for two weeks and allow foreigners arrested during
recent raids to get access to legal representation after government
authorities said they have arrested about 750 immigrants staying
illegally in the country.
(AP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Syrian government
helicopters dropped barrel bombs in a neighborhood in the northern
city of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people. The Aleppo Media Center,
based in the city, said at least 35 people were killed. At least 4
people were killed and 17 wounded in a double bomb blast in the
central city of Homs.
(AP, 5/12/15)(AFP, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, Ukraine said 3
government servicemen were killed and one was wounded in separatist
eastern territories over the past 24 hours despite a three-month-old
ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 5/12/15)
2015 May 12, In Yemen at least
69 people were killed and 250 others were wounded by explosions
after Saudi-led warplanes hit an arms depot a day earlier on the
outskirts of Sanaa as bombing continued today.
(AFP, 5/12/15)

2016 May 12, The Obama
administration unveiled its latest action aimed at reducing methane
emissions in the oil and gas industry. The EPA ruling would reduce
methane emissions from oil and gas drilling by 40 to 45% by 2025
compared with 2012 levels.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A8)
2016 May 12, The Obama
administration said public schools must permit transgender students
to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen
gender identity. Politicians in Arkansas, Texas and elsewhere soon
vowed defiance.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A8)(SFC, 5/14/16, p.A6)
2016 May 12, The United States
switched on an $800 million missile shield in Romania that it sees
as vital to defend itself and Europe from so-called rogue states but
the Kremlin says is aimed at blunting its own nuclear arsenal.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Oracle Corp.
founder Larry Ellison pledged $200 million to the Univ. of Southern
California to create a center designed to combine traditional
medicine with holistic approaches to treat and prevent cancer.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.C1)
2016 May 12, George Zimmerman
(32), the former neighborhood-watch volunteer who shot and killed
black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, said he would sell the gun he
used in the shooting at auction.
(AFP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In Oklahoma the
Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 landed in Tulsa after taking off from
Arizona on the latest leg of its around-the-world journey.
(SFC, 5/14/16, p.A6)
2016 May 12, In Australia the
4-day Sexpo, Sydney's adult entertainment and lifestyle show, opened
for its 20th year.
(http://www.sexpo.com.au/)(AFP, 5/15/16)
2016 May 12, In Brazil centrist
VP Michel Temer, of the centrist Party of the Brazilian Democratic
Movement (PMDB), took the helm of the country, hours after the
Senate voted to suspend President Dilma Rousseff, of the Workers’
Party (PT), to stand trial for breaking budgetary laws.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)(Econ, 5/7/16, p.25)
2016 May 12, Britain’s PM David
Cameron, the host of a global anti-corruption summit, announced that
countries have pledged to set up public registers of company
ownership in a collective effort to make it harder to launder the
proceeds of corruption around the globe. Countries taking part in
the summit issued a 34-point communique outlining pledges to tackle
issues ranging from doping and match-fixing in sports to tax evasion
and bribery.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, It was reported
that China's ruling Communist Party has expelled Zhang Kunsheng,
former assistant foreign minister, for graft, including joining
private clubs, accepting gifts and bribes, and trading power for
sex. Kunsheng was sacked from his government post last January and
put under investigation.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, French prosecutors
said that $2 million tied to Tokyo's winning bid for the 2020
Olympics was apparently paid to an account linked to Papa Massata
Diack (50), the son of disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack,
in the months immediately before and after the Japanese capital won
the games.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Guinea-Bissau's
President Jose Mario Vaz sacked PM Carlos Correia and dissolved his
government, in a move that threatened to deepen political turmoil in
the tiny West African nation.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In India
television journalist Akhilesh Pratap Singh was also shot dead by
unknown assailants as he returned home on a motorbike in restive
Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 5/14/16)
2016 May 12, Iran announced
that it will not send pilgrims to Saudi Arabia this year for the
annual hajj pilgrimage, after a disaster during the event last year
killed at least 2,426 people including 464 of its pilgrims.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, The World Health
Organization said air pollution causes more than 3 million premature
deaths worldwide every year. The worst air pollution was recorded at
Zabol in Iran. The WHO said India has four of the 10 cities in the
world with the worst air pollution and Saudi Arabia had two.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, Islamic State
insurgents killed at least 17 Iraqi soldiers with suicide truck
bombs in a major attack on government forces in Jarayshi, 10 km (6
miles) north of Ramadi. They also surrounded an army regiment,
seized a bridge and cut a key supply route linking Ramadi to the
Thirthar district further north. The jihadist group also killed two
policemen and wounded eight others in two suicide bombings in Abu
Ghraib outside Baghdad.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Kyrgyzstan
security services arrested three politicians including a former
minister on charges of plotting a coup, ahead of an anti-government
rally later this month.
(AFP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 12, In Libya 4 members
of military forces loyal to the new UN-backed unity government were
reported killed and 30 wounded in clashes with Islamic State (IS)
insurgents near the western city of Misrata.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Coca-Cola said it
will stop production of all canned drinks in Namibia and has warned
consumers of possible shortages, as a regional drought worsened
across southern Africa.
(AFP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In northeastern
Nigeria 7 people including 2 police officers were killed when a
suicide bomber tried to attack government offices in Maiduguri.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Officials said
Pakistan is spending $4 billion a year on cotton imports to support
the ailing textile industry, after erratic rainfall and drought in
the country's cotton fields slammed growers and the country's
economy.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Slovenia said it
took in its first 28 migrants under an EU relocation scheme that
many other EU countries have been slow to carry out or rejected
outright. Slovenia, with a population of 2 million, has committed to
accepting a total of 587 migrants, or up to 50 per month through
August 2017.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, Syrian government
forces battled rebels north of Aleppo as a ceasefire expired in the
city itself. Insurgents captured the Alawite village of al-Zara from
government control in western Syria and abducted civilians living
there.
(Reuters, 5/12/16)
2016 May 12, In Syria Lebanon’s
top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine (55) was killed in an
explosion in Damascus.
(AP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 12, In Turkey 15
militants were killed in clashes in Sirnak province. 4 suspected
bomb makers were killed and 23 people were wounded when an explosion
ripped through a village in the southeast as PKK militants loaded
explosives onto a small truck. Authorities later identified the
remains of 13 people from two families killed from more than 15 tons
of explosives in the truck raising the death toll to 16.
(Reuters, 5/13/16)(AP, 5/17/16)
2016 May 12, Uganda’s Pres.
Museveni (71) was inaugurated for a 5th term amid arrests of
opposition politicians and a shutdown of social media.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.A2)
2016 May 12, In Yemen a suicide
car bombing struck a navy base in the southern port city of Mukalla,
killing at least 6 troops in a rare IS attack in a city once
occupied by its rival militant al-Qaida branch. Yemen's Islamic
State affiliate claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/12/16)

2017 May 12, President Donald
Trump shot a sharp warning at his ousted FBI director about possible
"tapes" of their disputed private conversations, raising the
provocative possibility that recording devices have been installed
in the White House.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Lawyers for
President Donald Trump said that a review of his last 10 years of
tax returns did not reflect "any income of any type from Russian
sources," but their letter included exceptions related to previously
cited income generated from a beauty pageant and sale of a Florida
estate.
(AP, 5/13/17)
2017 May 12, In southern
California former Los Angeles sheriff Lee Baca (74) was sentenced to
three years in prison for obstructing an FBI investigation into
abuses at the jails he ran.
(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A6)
2017 May 12, Federal
prosecutors in New York announced late today a surprise settlement
between the US government and Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, the
owner of Prevezon Holdings. The Russian-owned group of companies
agreed to pay nearly $6 million to settle US civil allegations that
the firms laundered proceeds of a $230 million tax fraud, ending a
politically charged case days before it was set to go to trial.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Washington and
Beijing announced an agreement giving US beef, natural gas and
certain financial services access to China's massive market in a
deal highlighting the warm ties nurtured by their presidents. The US
in exchange will allow cooked Chinese poultry to enter US markets.
(AFP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, A federal jury in
Minneapolis awarded a Twin Cities woman nearly $1 million in her
civil lawsuit against a Minnesota man she says sexually assaulted
her when she was 14 and living in Laos.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Ohio gunman
Thomas Hartless (43) was found dead after shooting Steven Eric
Disario (36), the police chief of Kirkersville, and nursing home
employees Marlina Medrano and Cindy Krantz. Medrano had obtained
civil protection orders against Hartless.
(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A5)(SSFC, 5/14/17, p.A8)
2017 May 12, In northern
Afghanistan Taliban fighters launched the attack early today in the
Burka district, Baghlan province. Four security forces were reported
killed as well as 15 Taliban fighters. 10 insurgents including a
Taliban-appointed deputy governor and district chief were killed in
northern Samangan province.
(AP, 5/12/17)(AP, 5/13/17)(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A2)
2017 May 12, In Azerbaijan the
local court in the Baku upheld action by the country's
communications ministry to block the access to the Azeri-language
website of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty as well as several key
independent news websites. The websites have been unavailable since
late March when the ministry shut down the access following a
prosecutor's petition decrying "threats to legitimate interests of
the government and society."
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Security companies
noticed that a piece of malicious software known as WannaCry was
spreading across the Internet, first in Britain and Spain and then
around the world. In 48 hours it reached 230,000 computers.
(Econ 5/20/17, p.69)
2017 May 12, Britain's National
Health Service said hospitals across England have been hit by an
apparent "ransomware" attack, but there was no immediate evidence
that patient data had been accessed. The cyberattack crippled
computer systems at hospitals across England, with appointments
canceled, phone lines down and patients turned away.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, A global
cyber-attack infected computers at businesses, healthcare facilities
and other organizations in dozens of countries, disrupting
operations at some facilities. Spain said several Spanish companies
had been targeted in ransomware cyberattack that affected the
Windows operating system of employees' computers. Kaspersky Lab, a
Russian cybersecurity firm, said it had recorded at least 45,000
attacks in as many as 74 countries. Code for exploiting the
Microsoft bug, which is known as "Eternal Blue," was released on the
internet in March by a hacking group known as the Shadow Brokers.
The group claimed it was stolen from a repository of National
Security Agency hacking tools.
(AP, 5/12/17)(Reuters, 5/13/17)(SFC, 5/13/17,
p.A2)(Reuters, 5/14/17)
2017 May 12, Congo DRC’s health
minister said one person has been confirmed dead from Ebola in an
outbreak in a remote corner of northern Congo as health authorities
look into a total of nine suspected cases. The outbreak emerged
April 22 in Bas-Uele province. The WHO said at least three people
have died in the last three weeks.
(AP, 5/12/17)(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A2)
2017 May 12, In India the
Allahabad High Court ruled that the state should start re-issuing
licenses to the abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh, allowing them to
re-open. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state had ordered the
closure of unlicensed slaughter houses after he was appointed by PM
Narendra Modi in March.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, The western Indian
city of Ahmadabad, a city of more than 7 million people, launched
its first air quality monitoring system that will be used to send
out pollution alerts.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Iraq's Shi'ite
paramilitaries launched an offensive to drive Islamic State from a
desert region near the border with Syria as security forces fought
the militants in the city of Mosul.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Israeli soldiers
shot dead a Palestinian during stone-throwing clashes in the
occupied West Bank.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Italy G7
finance ministers began two days of talks on the global economy,
taxation and terrorist financing in the southern city of Bari.
Officials raised concerns about risks to global growth from the
Trump administration's policy proposals including tax reform.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Ivory Coast's
national security council held an emergency meeting as soldiers left
their barracks and blocked streets in several towns and cities
across the country, including the commercial capital, firing
gunshots into the air as their protest over a pay dispute gathered
momentum.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Malaysia said it
had deported three Turkish men to Ankara over suspected links to a
group blamed by Turkey for a failed coup last year. Authorities had
detained school principal Turgay Karaman (43), businessman Ihsan
Aslan (39) and academic Ismet Ozcelik (58) last week, saying they
posed a threat to national security.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Myanmar police
said they have arrested two radical Buddhist nationalists and are
seeking several more after they clashed with Muslims in the
country's commercial capital Yangon, underscoring a growing concern
over rising religious tensions.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, North Korea sent a
rare letter of protest to the US House of Representatives warning
that a new package of tougher sanctions would only spur its
development of nuclear weapons.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Pakistan’s army
said Pakistan and Afghanistan military officials have agreed to
increase the number of bilateral interactions through various
command and staff channels to foster an environment of mutual
respect, trust and cooperation.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded next to a convoy of the deputy chairman of the Pakistan
Senate in Baluchistan province, killing at least 25 people. The
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Pope Francis
arrived in Portugal where he is to visit the shrine at Fatima, one
of the world's most popular Catholic pilgrimage sites.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, South Korea
ordered Hyundai and Kia to recall 240,000 vehicles to repair five
defects initially raised by a whistleblower, in the country's first
compulsory recall for a domestic carmaker.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Syria more than
1,200 people including rebels left two opposition-held districts of
Damascus under an agreement that will bring Syria's government
closer to exerting full control over the capital.
(AFP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, Turkish police
detained Oguz Guven, the editor of pro-secular Cumhuriyet
newspaper's online edition, for a news article on the death of
prosecutor Mustafa Alper in a traffic accident on May 10. Alper,
chief prosecutor of Denizli province in southwest Turkey, had filed
the first indictment against the network of US-based cleric
Fethullah Gulen following last summer's coup attempt.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, In Turkey the
domed Zeynel Bey Tomb, weighing 1,100 tons, was moved in one piece
in four hours, traveling two km (more than a mile) on a large
wheeled platform to make way for a hydroelectric dam on the Tigris
river. The monument, around 550 years old, was located in the
ancient settlement of Hasankeyf, where the majority of villages and
historic sites are at risk of being submerged in water when the
Ilisu Dam is completed.
(AP, 5/12/17)
2017 May 12, The UN called for
an investigation into crimes against sexual minorities following an
uptick in deadly violence against transgender women in El Salvador.
(Reuters, 5/12/17)